butterflies
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Question Mark?
The question mark on a Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) looks a little more like a semi-colon. These and their cousins the Eastern Commas are also called Anglewings more generically because their wings don’t have the rounded shape of most of our butterflies. This one was slurping up Viburnum nectar in Brooklyn Bridge Park recently.…
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American Copper
Lycaena phlaeas. Common name aside, the East Coast population of this small butterfly is thought to have been introduced from Europe during the colonial period, probably on the sheep sorrel its larva feeds on. It is notably associated with these invasive sorrels, and often found on disturbed habitats like roads and lawns, where I’ve photographed…
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The Hunt for Red Admiral
Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) are out in force this year, enough to be noticed by my radio station, WNYC. This is probably an East Coast phenomenon, as I was on Nantucket this weekend and saw many but photographed few. Being so fast, flighty, and flittery, butterflies are generally hard to photograph. Red Admirals are…
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Polygonia demystified
Eastern Comma butterfly (Polygonia comma). I found this photo in my archives and thought I would compare it to this photo of a Question Mark butterfly (P. interrogationis) I took the other day:These butterflies’ common names come from the small silver marks on the underside of their hindwings (the lower of the pair), which look…
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Butterflies, Butterfly-Shaped
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis). Very similar to the Painted Lady (V. cardui), which, like the Monarch (Danaus plexippus), is migratory. Saw my first Monarch as well (last year I noted my first at the end of June); the milkweeds, which Monarchs are so associated with, were only three-four inches out of the ground. I’m using…
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Now Blooming, Now Flying
In Prospect Park this morning:Wild Geranium, a.k.a. Spotted Cranesbill (Geranium maculatum).Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis), as punctual a name as the very, very similar Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma): (picture from my archives)– so named because of small silvery marks on their underside of their hindwings, unseen while wings are spread.Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). Red Admiral…
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Butterflies
American Copper, Lycaena phlaeas. Another name for them is Flame Copper. They are small and vivid.Common buckeye, Junonia coenia. This one kept leaping ahead of us on the path and required some very careful stalking. From F. Schuyler Mathews, Field Book of American Wild Flowers: Being a Short Description of Their Character and Habits, A…
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The Monarchs Are Here
A male monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, in the Battery Bosque yesterdy. You can see some examples of monarch caterpillars in my post from last August. (And you can tell this is a male, even this blurry, because of the small spots in the hindwing veins.) The Bosque, named after the trees that tower over it,…
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Tiger Swallowtail
One of our biggest butterflies, the eastern tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus. Seen all over the East Coast and Midwest; this one was photographed yesterday in Hudson River Park. Note that the upper “swallowtail” is abbreviated, broken or bitten off. This may be a female, because of the extensive blue on the hindwing. Her tongue is…
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Sulphur
A female orange sulphur butterfly, Colias eurytheme, I think, and not a female clouded sulphur, C. philodice, because, although these species are quite similar, this one looks just like the example in Kaufman’s Field Guide to Butterflies of North America. Complicating matters, these two species can hybridize.
Backyard and Beyond 